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I have a late-2011 15" MacBook Pro.
I have just had my spinning hard drive swapped out with an SSD. The new drive does not have a recovery partition. Can I create one? If so, how?
My laptop is well backed up with Time Machine. I also have a license for SuperDuper, and so can create a bootable external hard drive to boot from if I need to. I don't mind having to wipe my drive completely in order to set it up properly.
Reinstall OS X using the Internet Recovery option (hold Command+R during boot).
During the reinstall, OS X will create a local Recovery HD. You also won't need to backup your data as it will simply reinstall the core operating system without touching your existing content.
Carbon Copy Cloner will copy the entire drive including the Recovery Partition (SuperDuper doesn't copy Recovery Partition last I checked)
http://www.bombich.com/ccc_features.html
Using C.C.C. you can directly image your old HDD drive onto your new SSD if there is enough space available.
You will need a firewire/usb/thunderbolt external HD case to copy over directly. The external HD case needs to be bootable if original HDD is already removed.
There is also the option to remove your SuperDrive/DVD drive and install a HDD drive adaptor in the optical bay. (Exteral cases for Superdive/DVD are available.) The SSD+HDD setup gives you addtional storge and mobile backup options...
